Polish right-wing MEP Grzegorz Braun attempted a citizen’s arrest when he entered a hospital in Poland aiming to detain a gynaecologist he alleged had murdered a child by performing an abortion at the 36th week of pregnancy.
Braun’s action came on April 16 in Oleśnica, southern Poland. The doctor concerned had reportedly injected potassium chloride into the unborn child’s heart after it was diagnosed with a congenital bone defect. That move was also carried out to allegedly protect the mental health of the mother.
Gizela Jagielska zablokowana w swoim pokoju do dyspozycji Policji i Prokuratury. Tak kończą aborterzy!
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Trwa interwencja poselska @GrzegorzBraun_& @Roman_Korona, z udz członków @KoronaMlodych oraz proliferami Fundacji Życie i Rodzina @ratujzycie_pl_ – zawsze na pierwszej linii! pic.twitter.com/B5EzEBKnSA
— Kaja Godek 🇵🇱 (@GodekKajaU) April 16, 2025
The local prosecutors’ office said it was examining the case but the interior ministry has said that there would be legal consequences for those involved in the unauthorised entry into the hospital building and pledged that medical staff would be protected.
Initially, the patient had sought help in the city of Łódz, central Poland, where she was offered a cesarean followed by treatment of the child rather than an abortion, primarily due to the late stage of the pregnancy.
The woman was then advised by a pro-abortion organisation to seek help in the hospital in Oleśnica where she was offered the termination.
According to gynaecologist Giselle Jagielska, Braun “burst into” the administrative office on the maternity ward together with some others and blocked her from leaving the room. She accused the MEP of insulting and threatening her and when she tried to leave the room, she claimed she was physically stopped from doing so.
Jagielska also accused Braun of “conducting an election campaign in the hospital”, a reference to the fact that he is standing for president in May’s election, and of endangering the lives of patients in her care.
Braun, though, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) it was not him but Jagielska who put lives at risk.
“Letting her work endangers the lives of Poles and I am therefore making a citizen’s arrest and I am calling upon the police to ensure that she is not allowed any more contact with patients,” he reportedly said as the police arrived on the scene.
“We are talking about murder here so the police and prosecutor should be on the scene,” he added.
Pro-life organisations argued there should be legal consequences for those involved in performing such a late-term abortion and that such cases could even be considered alleged “homicide”.
Magdalena Majkowska, a lawyer who has worked with Conservative legal think-tank Ordo Iuris, told Catholic broadcaster Radio Maryja that allowing abortion on mental health grounds “has now become a loophole that is used to allow abortion on demand”.
She added that Ordo Iuris lawyers were considering whether the case was an alleged homicide and whether the mother should also be held to account for the termination.
The Right to Life Foundation has also called for those responsible to be held accountable. “The 37th week of pregnancy is a time when the baby is ready to be born. It is not a premature birth anymore,” it told PAP.
Under Polish law, abortion is permitted only if the pregnancy threatened the mother’s life or health, or if it was the result of a criminal act such as rape. A 2020 ruling by the Constitutional Court removed foetal defects as grounds for legal abortion.
Before that court ruling, when such defects were still allowed as grounds for abortion, the rule was that termination could only take place before a foetal could survive outside the womb. That was considered to be around 24 weeks into the pregnancy, with life-saving abortions continued to be allowed at any stage of pregnancy.
Last year, the new centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk issued guidelines on terminations that made the risk of mental-health damage legal grounds for performing abortions.
Braun, having left the Confederation party, is standing in the presidential election on a platform of opposing “the Ukrainisation of Poland”, withdrawal from the European Union and a return to “traditional Catholic values”.
While an MP in the domestic Polish parliament, he attracted notoriety when in December 2023 he put out Hanukkah candles with a fire extinguisher in protest at the Jewish faith being honoured in Poland’s legislature.
